


Keep The Home Fires Burning

by katayla



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: F/M, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 05:37:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2839955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nan and Jerry through the years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep The Home Fires Burning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myrifique](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrifique/gifts).



> Thank you, betas!

It so happened that one morning, halfway through Jerry's stay at Ingleside, Nan found herself alone with him in Rainbow Valley. Jerry was fishing and Nan was picking fall flowers.

After a while, Nan came to sit next to Jerry and dropped her flowers, one by one, into the brook.

"What are you doing?" Jerry asked.

"Oh," Nan said. "I'm tired of taking them up to the house and watching them die."

"They're going to die this way, too," Jerry said.

Nan frowned. "Should I leave them, do you think? Enjoy them where they grow?"

"I think beautiful things should be enjoyed however you want."

He grinned at Nan and she found herself unexpectedly blushing. She and Jerry looked at each other and then his cheeks reddened and he jumped up.

"Come on," he said. "Let's build a fire and cook this fish."

*

"May I carry your books for you?" Jerry asked, when Nan came out of her last class of the day. Nearby, Faith handed Jem her books. Nan looked back at Di behind her and Di nodded. Jerry wasn't the first boy to ask to carry Nan's books, but none of the others were boys she knew well. They didn't understand the kind of things she liked to talk about, which didn't make for very pleasant walks home.

"Yes," Nan said.

Jerry took her books and grinned at her. They fell in step behind the others. Faith and Jem liked to walk ahead of the rest, and Di was walking with one of her friends from class.

"I can help you study," Jerry said. "I am, after all, a year ahead of you."

Nan tossed her head. "Who said I needed help?"

Jerry shrugged. "Then maybe you can help _me_."

"You don't need help."

She knew that from years of school together, years of Jerry lending her his father's books. They both enjoyed reading the kind of philosophical ponderings that filled the shelves of Mr. Meredith's shelves.

"Maybe we can study together," Jerry said.

He looked at her and his usually flashing eyes stayed still on her face and she couldn't look away or say anything, but she nodded, and then his eyes flashed again and they talked all the way home.

*

Jerry came to call on Nan his first night home from Redmond. She had worn her nicest dress and Jem had raised his eyebrows at her, but didn't say anything, maybe because he was planning a visit up to the manse this evening.

Nan waited for him alone on the veranda. Di had promised to keep the others away and the laughter floating up from Rainbow Valley gave Nan hope that no one would search for her.

"Hello," Jerry said.

"Hello," Nan said.

He stood in the shadows and Nan slowly came down the steps to meet him. They hadn't seen each other since he left for college, but they had exchanged fat letters. Yet this Jerry didn't seem quite the Jerry who had left. He seemed to have taken another step into the grown-up world which feared and excited Nan.

And then he grinned at her and his eyes flashed and she ran the rest of the short way to him.

*

When darkness fell, Nan made her way to the manse. She met Faith halfway there, and the two women clasped hands for a moment.

Nan wanted to say something, but what was there to say? Their brothers, their friends would go and they would be left alone. In all her imagining, she had never imagined something like this.

She found Jerry sitting on a gravestone in the cemetery.

"Don't," Nan said. "Don't sit there."

Jerry jumped off the gravestone and came to her. "Aw Nan, nothing will happen to me."

Nan shook her head and backed away. "Don't. You don't know that."

"Sure, I do."

Jerry stood there, her head tilted to the side, and grinned. "Come here."

He held out his hands. Nan stepped forward and let him fold his arms around her.

"I _must_ go," he said. "You know I must."

Nan smiled up at him, or tried to. "I know."

And he held her until it was time to go to the station.

*

"No," Nan said, when Faith and Di entered her boarding house room. Faith's face was pale and sober. "Faith, please, don't tell me."

She put her face in her hands.

"He's--he's not dead," Faith said. "Only--only--"

Nan looked up. "Faith, I can't bear it, please--"

Faith opened her mouth, closed it, and looked at Di. 

Di took a deep breath and put her arm around Nan's shoulder.

"He was shot in the back," Di said. "We don't know anything else."

"Oh!" And Nan turned her head into Di's shoulder and waited for the tears to fall. She had kept from crying for so long, tried to be brave, but it hadn't helped.

Faith came to Nan's other side and held her hand. "He'll be all right. You'll see."

But Faith's voice broke and tears came into her eyes.

"He _will_ ," Di said. And she took Nan's other hand in hers, so all three women were drawn together. "He'll come home to you."

*

When the train pulled into the Glen Station, Nan stayed in her seat for a moment and looked at her lap. Di squeezed her hand. 

"Do you want me to look out the window?" Di asked.

Nan nodded. She had hated being at Redmond when Jerry came home. She wanted to be the one waiting to greet him. What if he wasn't there?

Di took a long look out the window and then turned and smiled at Nan. "Go on, then."

Nan closed her eyes tightly. Why was she was so afraid? She drew in a deep breath and didn't let it go until she got off the train.

Her family was waiting there and, standing with them, was Jerry. His eyes were calmer than they once were, but they seemed to sparkle as they caught her own. He took a step and then stopped.

And, for a moment, they stood still, and gazed at each other, searching for signs in each others' eyes. And then Nan found herself holding her hands out to him and he was holding out his hands to her.

"Oh, Nan," he said, as his hands clasped hers.

" _Jerry_ ," she said, and held onto his hands as tightly as she could.

*

"And what are your plans?" Jerry asked, as they walked through Rainbow Valley together. It was summer and the sun shone down upon them.

"I suppose I will teach," Nan said. "What will you do?"

"I need to finish at Redmond," Jerry said. He bent down and picked a flower and handed it to her.

She smiled at him as she put it in her hair and they walked in silence until they came to the old spring and sat beside it. After a moment, Jerry took her hand in his.

"Nan," he said. "Do you mind waiting a little longer?"

"I would wait for you forever," Nan said. " _If_ you tell me what I'm waiting for."

Jerry laughed and Nan blushed. He put his head very close to hers. "I love you, Nan. Marry me."

"Yes," Nan said, and kissed him.


End file.
